Do More Firefighters At A Fire Cause More Fire Damage? Rethinking Attribution

When thinking about attribution, it would make everyone’s lives much simpler if there was a straight line between marketing, conversion and a sale. As car buyers increasingly visit more touchpoints in their car shopping journey, attribution becomes more challenging. 

There was an interesting analogy in a recent article on Business 2 Community that I felt nailed the challenges we face - and errors we make - when attributing a sale to a particular source. The article shared that data has proven the more firefighter at a fire, the more damage the fire caused. It was hypothesized to reduce fire damage the answer was to send fewer firefighters to fires. Of course, we all know that would probably not solve the problem, or reduce fire damage. After a deeper analysis factoring in other variables, it was found that the presence of more firefighter at fires was not, in fact, what increased fire damage. The reason more fire damage happens is because more firefighters are present at larger fires. 

While reviewing month-end expense reports to determine whether a vendor’s service is producing sales, do you simply measure cost versus revenue? Too many dealers make this mistake. All dealers - whether they realize it or not - have multi-channel marketing strategies. Some more than others. But, the simple fact is that every dealership has varying combinations of marketing channels that include print, radio, TV, online, social media, and more. How many messages from these channels did it take to compel that lead to respond, or that customer to walk through your door? It could have been one, or it could have been many. I’m sure you do your best to source customers. However, simply attributing a sale from an online inventory service based on a call-tracking number might steer you to some erroneous conclusions. 

In all probability, that lead, conversion or walk-in customer was influenced in some way by one or more of your marketing channels.  The customer may not remember which touchpoints they visited that lead them into your dealership. However, even asking them will typically give you more insight as to what was their primary influence. 

I’d bet that your customer’s journey looked something like this: They passed your billboard every day on their way to work. While scrolling through Facebook, they saw your targeted ads. Perhaps a neighbor brought home a new car, and they saw your license plate frame or sticker on the back. Watching TV late at night, they viewed one of your TV ads.  They conducted some online research about a specific vehicle and viewed one of your listings. They visited your website and browsed your inventory, then left to read some online reviews about your dealership. Maybe they even posted on Facebook; asking friends, family and associates for advice on the vehicle they’ve chosen and any opinions about your dealership. They decided to give you a shot and made plans to come to your store that weekend. And then they show up. Where do you attribute the sale? Which marketing channel gets credit?

The reality is that all of your marketing channels are working together to drive business to your dealership. So, consider digging a little deeper when analyzing attribution and judging any particular service’s performance.  Save yourself from making a mistake that could do more harm than good and drive in more sales and profitability into the bargain.

What Are You Doing To Reach Your Mobile Customers?

There’s no doubt that people are in love with their to their phones.  As a result, memes and jokes constantly circulate the Internet about how some people no longer participate in “normal” activities because they simply can’t put down their phones. People aren’t reading newspapers anymore - at least not in print - and they’re fast-forwarding through commercials. So where are they? You guessed it. On their phones. 

In a recent article on eMarketer.com, a respected publication that covers the global digital ecosystem: digital marketing, media and commerce, it was reported that 2015 is “a benchmark year for ad spending in the US, as mobile surpasses desktop spending for the first time.”  

In fact, eMarketer estimates that mobile will account for almost 52 percent of all digital spending by the end of the year. It attributes the shift to consumer demand and estimates that adults spend almost 3 hours per day on “nonvoice activities” on mobile devices – 1.5 hours of which is on mobile phones. 

There’s a very simple - and good - reason companies are shifting ad budgets towards mobile marketing. That’s where consumers are. Not too long ago, when someone decided to go car shopping, the first thing they did was pick up the Friday newspaper to view the section with all of the dealership advertising. Now, they hop online and look through OEM, dealership and third party sites to obtain that information on demand. In fact, the more tech-savvy consumers conduct their research from their mobile device while they’re shopping – right in the store or dealership. 

With this ever increasing trend in the use of mobile, I would advise dealers to investigate successful methods to capture the attention of these mobile shoppers. Technology is quickly developing including the strategic use of display ads, geo-targeting and push notifications. If you can reach out to a nearby customer actively shopping in your area and immediately inform them of sales, offers or specials -- without any effort on the part of that consumer -- you certainly could then have an edge over any competitors. 
The technology exists today that allows dealers to do this relatively inexpensively, such as through the use of iBeacons, a class of Bluetooth low energy (LE) devices that broadcast their identifier to nearby portable electronic devices. This can be used to determine the device's physical location, track customers, or trigger a location-based action on the device such as a check-in on social media or a push notification. Facebook, for example, offers free beacons to auto dealerships that can be used to push messages to customers at the dealership through the use of Bluetooth and geo-location technology.

As consumers continue their migration away from desktops and rely more on mobile devices, marketing will continue its shift in that direction as well. Just as it is extremely important that your website is compatible with mobile devices, the same now applies to your marketing.  

May the Phone Be With You - Why Mobile Marketing Is Taking Over

Have you ever walked down the street and all of a sudden had your phone alert you that you’re near a Starbucks or Walgreens, automatically displaying your loyalty card in Apple Passbook or Google Wallet? Or perhaps you have received push notifications from Waze and other apps that deliver real-time notifications based on your location.  As consumers increasingly rely on mobile phones for information, location-based marketing is becoming more important.

Facebook recently launched Facebook Bluetooth Beacons, which enables push messages, tips and invitations to like your page, whenever a customer opens the Facebook app while at your business.

Geo-targeted technology allows businesses to push coupons and offers to nearby users. Many industries - especially retail and hospitality - are adopting these technologies to capture more immediate business. Traditional - and even digital - marketing may still be effective. However,   it takes time for that message to reach the customer before they see it and take action.

A recent article by MarketingLand shared some interesting information on this subject. I thought I would share it and at the same time put it into perspective for the auto industry, as to why you might want to consider this technology:

Location-based data is currently used by only 23% of marketers

If only 23% of businesses are using this technology currently, your dealership could be ahead of any competition by adopting a location-based marketing program.

Companies can provide consumers with product/service information and recommendations in real time, based on location

Imagine a customer walking your lot, or sitting in your service waiting area, to whom you can immediately send service specials, offers and coupons. Or you could simply share current incentives with them. If you can provide the information they seek without any effort on their part, the customer may well be more inclined to take action.

But how do they respond to this?

57% of consumers are willing to share their locations to receive more relevant advertising.

53% are more likely to engage with location-based advertising

This seems like a no-brainer. If you’re looking for a place to eat and all of a sudden you get a coupon pushed to your phone from a nearby restaurant, you may just be swayed into trying you out. The same could well apply to your dealership.

The real question is, do consumers take the businesses up on the offer?

72% of consumers respond to calls to action in marketing messages they receive within sight of the retailer

With all these stats and technology in mind, wouldn’t you want to put that to use when a customer is at a competitor dealership and searching your site, or other auto sites? That technology exists today.  You just need to execute a plan of action.  Think about how huge this would be for a dealership. It’s almost like sending your salespeople over to the competing dealership and pulling the customer back to yours. Why would you not want to do that? This customer is nearby and actively car-shopping. Can you think of any customer you’d rather have walk into your dealership?

The fact is that the technology is readily available to accomplish location-based marketing right now. The ability to push relevant messages to nearby customers, incenting them to come to your dealership showroom, when they are in the vicinity of your dealership and ready to buy is a game changer. If you’re not already utilizing services that allow you to do these things, take the time to investigate them and see how you can leverage this technology to drive more traffic into your dealership.

8 Things Dealers Can Do To Increase Their Show Rates

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When handling Internet leads, the lack of response by customers, the appointments that don’t show and the unrealistic expectations often frustrate internet managers and dealers. Show and closing rates in the low to mid-teens is not uncommon, compared to the total number of leads received.

I thought I would share some best practices from my observations working both in and with dealerships, that can be used to increase the number of customers contacted that actually visit the dealership.

1.    Respond promptly – One of the most common setups in Internet departments is to have Internet sales managers (ISM) also serve in sales positions. A typical pay plan will see an ISM compensated by sales commissions, so that is where there focus will be. Therefore, when a customer comes in for an appointment Internet leads get ignored until the ISM is done with their customer. Which, in the event of a sale, could mean that the leads coming into the CRM are ignored for hours. A quick lead response exponentially increases the chance of contacting and further interesting the customer.

2.    Provide Information – ISMs typically use templates to contact customers once a lead is received, which usually contain information about the dealership and its value proposition, along with an invitation to visit. However, far too often the first e-mail fails to contain the one thing that the customer is expecting – vehicle pricing. It’s important to consider the source of the lead when responding. In most cases, the conversion occurred because the customer was prompted to fill out a form to get the price. If you fail to give the price, customers can perceive your dealership as unhelpful and move on to your competition.

3.    Be agreeable – We all know that some customers tend to have unrealistic expectations when requesting pricing or payment information. It’s not uncommon to find ISMs engaging the customers with reasons NOT to buy. For example, a lead comes in with a customer wanting an unrealistic payment or price. Rather than inviting the customer in to work numbers, the ISM will explain that the requested price or payment isn’t possible. Always remember that sales are a numbers game. With the proper deal structure, a payment can be as low as any customer wants it.

4.    Be consultative – Many times the vehicle that the customer requested pricing for isn’t the one they end up purchasing. Always remember that customers are looking for information and assistance. Failing to provide information puts the salesperson in an adversarial position to the customer. It’s much easier to build rapport and get the customer into the dealership if the customer feels that you are sincerely trying to assist them in finding the right vehicle.

5.    Sell the appointment – When dealing with Internet leads, ISMs will all too often try to sell the car via email or the phone. The key to increasing show rates is to remember that the goal is to get the appointment, NOT to sell the car. Using sales skills and techniques focused on selling the appointment rather than working a deal can help increase appointments set and your show rate.

6.    Go above and beyond – When a customer requests information, always give them more than they asked for. If you are offering vehicle pricing, try including an example payment. If the customer requested information about a new vehicle, include several trim levels in your response. If they are interested in a used vehicle, you may try including some alternate vehicles in your response as well. By providing more information than requested, the customer will understand that you are truly trying to assist them and therefore more likely to choose to do business with you.

7.    Make them feel special/personalize – There’s a reason why many dealers are adopting video in their email responses. If a customer wants information about the condition of a used vehicle, it’s very simple to record a personal walkaround for the customer while mentioning their name. Personalized video responses are valuable for building rapport and help put a face with a name. It’s also much easier than taking 10 pictures of a vehicle and trying to email them to the customer.

8.    Consistent follow up – It’s very easy to understand why ISMs get frustrated trying to contact customers who submitted leads, but are then unresponsive. After days or weeks of emails and phone calls, many salespeople tend to give up on the customer and move on. Keep in mind that chances are the customer is being contacted by other dealers as well. And, those dealers have ISMs who are getting just as frustrated. By not giving up on the customer and continuing to follow up, you could well be the only dealership left doing so. This exponentially increases the chance that the customer responds and ultimately ends up in your showroom.

Regardless of whether your Internet department consists of commission based ISMs, or if it has a full-blown BDC, the right processes, personalized responses and attention paid to detail, rather than simply shooting off boring sterile templates, will show your customers that you are there to help. Consider adopting these techniques into your Internet lead process. I hope that you are able to contact more customers, make more appointments and see more of them show, resulting in more sales.

Identifying Customer Intent through Conversion & Incentives

Dealer websites today are filled with conversion widgets. In most cases, customers will choose only one form or call-to-action (CTA) to convert on. If the CTA that they chose was “value my trade,” then you can be pretty sure that the value of their trade-in is their hot button. Or perhaps they filled out a credit application. Those may be pretty low-funnel customers who, in most cases, will have some credit challenges that they may need help with. Most conversions, however, are from price-based CTAs. Whether the conversion happened because there was no price and they clicked “Get price.” Or, whether a price was present and they wanted more information, the majority of the leads any dealer gets will begin in this manner. That being said, we also know that many dealers have pop up specials or incentives they offer their website visitors. It could be a “$100 off coupon” towards a vehicle. Or it could be “Get a $25 gift card with test drive.” What does it tell you, however, when the same customer converts on both forms, one right after the other?

The customer’s intent when converting on your website is to move further down the funnel towards a new vehicle. Some may be simply pricing out vehicles and doing research. While others may be planning to go buy a car tomorrow… or even today. If your dealership has a special offer pop up on the website and you get a lead from a VDP, then immediately after get a conversion on the pop up, the sirens should go off. These customers want information and have taken the next mental step towards buying a car from you. Not only are they prepared to take you up on that $100 off or gift card offer, but they have, at the very least, narrowed your dealership down to one they plan to visit.

Most dealerships have canned templates for online inquiries - some better than others. I would suggest, however, that if you see conversion activity as described above, you should have a completely different process in place for handling these leads. Just think about what this consumer’s actions tell you about their intent. They came to your website, browsed your inventory, landed on a vehicle that interested them enough to give away the one thing that they control -- their information. Consumers don’t give this up easily. They understand that the moment they input their information and hit the submit button, someone at your dealership will be e-mailing and calling them. So, they decide to leave your website and are presented with an incentive. They’ve already filled out a form indicating interest. If they then stop and fill out a second form in order to claim an offer, they’ve just told you that they’re interested in the vehicle and doing business with your dealership AND, very likely, that they’re considering doing it SOON.

It is important to have concrete processes in place and consistent follow up with all of your internet leads - and I certainly don’t recommend cherry picking and ignoring any leads. However, the lead that comes in with a message that says “I want to buy a car from you tomorrow” will definitely perk up some ears and initiate some serious action by a dealership’s ISMs or managers. If you show offers and incentives to your customers and experience 2 conversions in a short period of time, one being your special offer, treat that lead exactly as if the customer had told you they were buying a car from you soon… because that’s exactly what their behavior told you, regardless of whether they typed it into the lead form.

Mobile Shoppers are Serious. Here's How to Connect With Them.

By David Metter

If your dealership has a mobile website, you are probably aware that 30 to 50 percent of your total website traffic are mobile users. You also know these mobile users are performing actions with their smartphones that are aligned with serious shopping behavior. In a recent study, Edmunds.com found that mobile users on its website engage in these five relevant behaviors: they shop, they view inventory, they click on ads, they submit leads and their page views rival those of wired shoppers.

Your mobile marketing strategy should include ways to connect with and convert mobile users as they engage in these key shopping behaviors. An effective strategy goes beyond having a responsive website. Many marketing tactics that work well for customers using desktops and laptops don't work with your mobile customers. It all comes down to how mobile shoppers use their phones. 

1. Shopping

According to the Edmunds.com study, 79 percent of mobile users are shopping, defined as viewing at least one vehicle. On dealership websites, mobile shopping activities include researching and comparing prices, reading reviews and calculating payments. It's important to keep in mind that although the average American spends three hours on their smartphone every day, the window of time you have to connect with these users is smaller than it is with your wired customers. Does your mobile website provide information on pricing, rebates and other special offers? Are your payment calculators and review pages mobile optimized? The more activities mobile shoppers can do on your site, the more time they will spend there.

2. Viewing Inventory

Mobile visitors view approximately nine percent more inventory pages than their counterparts using desktops and laptops. Are your vehicle display pages (VDPs) mobile-optimized? Mobile users watch a lot of videos; can your inventory videos be viewed on smartphones? Every mobile VDP should include a clear call to action right next to the product details, and text should be large enough to be viewed on a smaller screen.

3. Clicking on Ads

Edmunds.com found that mobile users are 2.5 times more likely to click on ads than wired site visitors, and they perform key shopping activities on the sites they click through to. This high level of ad engagement presents an opportunity for dealerships to convert shoppers into leads into showroom visitors. Mobile ads should provide a specific reason for shoppers to click through, such as a special offer or immediate incentive to come in and take a test drive--especially if they are in the vicinity.

4. Submitting Leads

The Edmunds.com study reveals a rapid growth in mobile lead submissions and their data shows these mobile leads close at the same rate as, or even better than, traditional leads. Higher lead counts are attributed to mobile optimization of lead forms and the ability to submit leads via text or "click to call" buttons.

To increase mobile lead submissions, create messages that give mobile users a reason to click or text now. Examples might include a "no pressure price quote," "easy payment quotes," or a gift card (similar to mobile advertising incentives). When it comes to mobile leads, it's also very important to have a process in place where the leads get an instant response. If a mobile shopper doesn't get the information they're looking for from your mobile website--quickly--they will move on. Next!

5. Viewing Pages

Even though mobile users spent less time on Edmunds.com than wired shoppers, they viewed as many or more pages during that time. What this tells me is that mobile users are looking for the same information and their shopping process is similar to shoppers using desktop and laptop computers. The smaller screens make it easier and faster to see whether information is available. The takeaway here is to ensure all relevant information and calls to action on your mobile pages are "above the fold" so mobile users don't have to scroll down to find what they're looking for.

The age of mobile is no longer just around the corner; it's here, and 30 to 50 percent of your potential customers are using mobile devices to shop for their next vehicle. Make it easy for them to connect and engage with your dealership, and you can easily convert these serious shoppers into leads and sales.

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Increase Show and Close Rates with a Winning Lead Strategy

Most dealers close between twenty to thirty percent of the leads submitted through their own website. With that kind of close rate, its no wonder the prevailing wisdom is the more leads you can get, the better. To a certain extent, this is true, but the quality of your leads is even more important than the quantity of leads. The more high-quality leads you get, the higher your show rates will be and the higher your close rates will be.

So how do you get more high-quality leads? Here's a step-by-step guide to formulating a winning lead strategy:

1. What geographical areas do you want to draw customers from? Most dealers have a pretty good idea of where most of their customers reside. If you don't, your dealership management system (DMS), sales data heat mapping, and market share reports can give you that information. Use geo-targeted marketing solutions for your website, mobile advertising, and other targeted marketing opportunities to execute against those opportunities. 
2. Who is your target market? "Profiling" is a bad thing if you're on the police force, but business owners know that developing profiles of their prototypical customers is a helpful exercise. This requires a little more thought than defining a geographical territory. Delve a little deeper and segment customers by gender, age group, income level, occupation and other characteristics. Develop six "personas" or profiles of your typical customers, such as "woman in her 30s with two small kids and works in the finance industry." Then sketch out what their daily routines may be like, where they commute, where they shop and where they get their news. Places you identify in your customer profiles may be good places to target with marketing campaigns.
3. How many Internet sales consultants do you have? This is pretty straightforward. How many people on your staff are trained to handle your leads and are held accountable for following up?  Set them up for success instead of inundating them with opportunities for failure. 
4. How many Internet leads should you be getting? For every Internet salesperson, figure that 80 to 100 leads per month is a reasonable figure for them to handle. Multiply the number of salespeople you have by 100, and that should be your monthly lead goal.
5. Knowing your lead goal, how many website visitors do you need? If your website is optimized for conversion, you should be averaging a five percent conversion rate. So if you want 500 quality leads every month, you'll need 10,000 website visitors every month.
6. Identify lead sources by traffic, volume, show and close rates. Which marketing channels deliver most of your website traffic? How many from your latest SEM campaigns, email marketing campaigns, digital advertising, social media, etc.? In addition to the volume of website visitors, calculate the conversion rates, show rates and close rates from each lead source. Just because one channel is delivering a lot of traffic doesn't mean you should allocate more budget to that channel unless the leads are closing at a rate of 20 percent or better.
7. Allocate your budget. Adjust your marketing budget according to the best-performing lead sources. The higher the show and close rates a lead source delivers, the more you should allocate to that channel. As long as the source continues to deliver the same show and close rates, try increasing the budget a little bit every month. At some point, increasing the budget will not deliver a higher volume of leads and the show and close rates may stabilize. At that point, continuing to increase the budget isn't necessary.
8. Turn leads into shows. What are your dealership’s established processes? Your lead follow-up process should be written down and copies should be posted on every sales associate's desk so they are reminded on a daily basis how important it is to follow the process. Ideally 25 to 30 percent of your leads will turn into shows but the national average is 17%. Focus on this metric.  It will dramatically change your ROI.
9. Require accountability. How do you measure whether processes are being followed? A system of accountability needs to be set up with one person in charge who will hold salespeople accountable.  Inspect what you expect. 
10. Analyze results and change as necessary. Once you have a winning lead strategy, analyze results on a monthly basis. As the market changes, as the seasons change, as consumers’ preferences change, so might your lead strategy. Keep a close eye on the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) from each of your marketing channels and make adjustments when you see the numbers change.

Every dealership is different, so there's no set formula for a winning lead strategy. Some trial and error and experimenting with new lead sources may be necessary before you finally come up with a strategy that delivers. How do you formulate your dealership's lead strategy? What are your favorite tips for increasing website traffic, lead conversion rates, show rates and close rates?

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The Most Important Attribution KPIs For Auto Dealers

With every year that passes, we’ve seen consumers increase their research and online activity exponentially and it has become increasingly difficult to discover true attribution when analyzing exactly what drove a specific customer into a dealership.

Marketing today mandates an omni-channel approach. No longer can you simply rely on a website and traditional media. An effective marketing strategy should include such tools as a comprehensive SEO and social media strategy, pay per click ad campaign, presences on third party listing sites, display ads and email marketing, to name just a few.

Because consumers are visiting so many sites in their car-buying journey, I think it would be fair to say that attributing a customer’s visit or transaction to a single source would be misleading. A customer could easily bounce from a manufacturer’s page, to vehicle review sites, to a third party listing site, then go to a dealer’s website, and then perhaps leave there to read reviews on yet another site. Therefore, attributing a conversion to a single page, source or form could lead to erroneous information and budgetary decisions based on that incorrect data – this could then lead to campaigns that are not as effective as they should be.

Some of the most common automotive KPIs currently used include Click Thru Rates; Conversion Percent, Site Visits; VDP views; Dealership address and directions; pricing; and engagement rates on any social media pages. I realize that some dealers may not have the time or resources to track the customer’s entire journey. If this is the case, at least pay attention to the two KPIs that give you real and actionable data:

1.    Lead to Show Ratio

2. Show to Close Ratio

While these KPIs won’t map out the customer’s journey, what they will do is help you to determine what marketing efforts are producing a return on your investment – and which are not.

A typical beginning of the month has management analyzing marketing sources and measuring their effectiveness by close ratio – i.e.:  We spent this much money and sold this many cars for this much profit. While this typical action may help determine if your marketing is producing revenue, it won’t help to determine whether it could be producing MORE revenue.

If you received 100 leads from prospects touched by all of your marketing and sold 10 cars, you would find that you have a 10 percent closing ratio. Whether this number is good depends on the market density.

But what does it really tell you? And what happens when you add your show ratio into that equation? By taking that same number of leads and discovering how many of those leads actually came in, you can determine whether your marketing is effective – i.e.: did it do its most fundamental job – did it drive traffic into your store?

You can then use that number to discover the show to close ratio. The first answer (lead-to-show) shows marketing effectiveness. While the second illustrates organizational effectiveness. You may be getting a high volume of customers into your dealership but fail to close them once they are there. OR, there could be a process issue in how leads are being handled.

Take the time to add these KPIs when calculating your lead providers and you’ll be better able to judge their performance and make better budgetary decisions. 

How to Stop Showrooming! (Recorded Webinar)

Click here to Watch the recorded video now.

FACT: Your customers are shopping your competitors right from your lot. 

It’s true! Over 60% of your dealership visitors are using their smartphones to compare your prices with your competition. When you see this, know that 2/3 of these car shoppers will leave your dealership to visit another store within a day.

This is called “showrooming” and over the last few years, as mobile usage has become an increasingly integral part of the car buying process, showrooming has also become an increasingly pervasive problem in our industry. More than ever, dealers need a comprehensive mobile strategy to stop showrooming and stay ahead of the competition.

DO YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW TO STOP SHOWROOMING AND SELL MORE CARS?

In this exciting 1 hour webinar, auto industry expert David Metter will discuss how to combat showrooming using readily available technology and proven mobile strategies. His unparalleled experience, insight and methodology are sure to bring swift and dramatic results for your dealership so that you can reduce the effects of showrooming immediately! 

Delivering On Your Promises Will Sell More Cars

One of the things dealers constantly have to battle with is the consumer trust factor. Historically, some auto dealerships have kept information away from consumers. So, as is human nature, consumers then thought these dealers had something to hide. To add to this issue of trust, in many dense markets, dealers participate in a fierce race to the bottom -- promising deep discounts on vehicles through their advertising… but then do a bait and switch. It’s not uncommon to hear a complaint from a customer that was given one price on the phone or online, just to discover a significant price change once they arrive at the store. Perhaps this was due a failure to qualify for a rebate, so was not exactly deceptive advertising. But, ultimately, it’s the consumer’s perception that matters.

The same trust factor presents itself when it comes to converting leads on dealership’s websites. Customers are afraid to fill out forms because they believe that, rather than fulfilling the promise on the form (i.e.: get a price), they will be barraged with e-mails and phone calls constantly. And, in many cases, that is exactly what happens -- the customer never gets what the form promised – a price. Many first responses from a dealership to a lead simply ask the customer when they can come in. Why would a customer want to come into your store if your first response to them was perceived as unhelpful?

To increase customer engagement and get a higher percentage to actually show at your dealership, perhaps consider delivering on the promise that the call-to-action (CTA) makes. If the CTA says fill out the form to get a price, give them a price. It’s certainly your decision as to if you want to give out pricing immediately or not. All I’m saying is that, if your dealership doesn’t want to give out pricing, change the wording on the CTA. The same concept goes for any of your conversion forms: trade value, financing, service appointments, coupons and incentives.

The first step to getting a customer into the showroom is to build rapport. If you were to greet a customer on the lot and they mentioned that they wanted to look at a certain vehicle, you would take them to that vehicle, chatting with them along the way. When a customer completes a conversion form, they are basically asking a direct question depending on the form – What is the Internet price? Can I get financed? When can I come in for a service appointment? How much is my trade-in worth? The way these questions are answered is key – these answers create the first impression in the customer’s eyes. If the dealership provides the information it promised on the conversion form, it certainly stands a better chance of being perceived as helpful. It can then begin the journey towards building trust. By not providing the information that was promised, the customer could perceive the dealership as unhelpful. It then becomes that much more difficult to engage the customer. Or, you just lose them and they go to the competition down the street.

This principle applies to any promises made on a dealership website. Deliver the information they want if you promised it on a conversion form. If you promise an experience, discount or incentive, be prepared to deliver it when they arrive. First impressions are important and, as we all know, you only get one chance to make one. Make yours count.